India demands West pay for bold solar energy plans
India has decided to push ahead with an ambitious plan to generate clean electricity through the power of the sun - and, after a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, it wants rich nations to pay the bill.
Although the country has virtually no solar power today, the plan is to generate 20 gigawatts (GW) from sunlight by 2020. According to the International Energy Agency, global solar capacity is predicted to be 27GW by then — meaning that India expects to be producing 75 per cent of this within 10 years
Ending power cuts
About 400 million Indians have no electricity at all, and harnessing the country´s abundant solar power could help spark growth and end the power cuts that plague the nation.
It would also, say some analysts, assuage international criticism that India is not doing enough to control its carbon emissions. It is heavily reliant on coal for power.
The idea provoked intense and prolonged discussions at a meeting of the national climate change council in New Delhi on Monday. Initial plans had anticipated that a government subsidy of about $20bn, and falling production costs, would enable a long-term 2040 target of 200GW of solar power.
However, experts pointed out that a large government subsidy would contradict the Indian government’s stated position in the global warming treaty negotiations.
India, along with China and others, has demanded that the costs of clean technologies should be borne by developed nations, who have grown rich through their heavy use of fossil fuels.
Under the revised plan, India’s solar mission will seek to achieve its targets by demanding technological and financial support from the developed nations.
“In order to achieve its renewable energy targets, the Indian government expects international financing as well as technology at an affordable cost,» said Leena Srivastava of the TERI energy research institute.
The move suggests that New Delhi could use its solar energy plan as a bargaining chip at the forthcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen.
If rich nations do fund the solar plan, the aim of both sides — economic growth for developing countries but with low-carbon emissions — will have been met.
Nonetheless, the plan’s optimistic cost projections were debunked at Monday’s meeting, leaving it unclear how much money the 2020 target would need
Another policy shift
In another significant policy shift, solar thermal (water-heating) technology will be given as much importance as photovoltaic (electricity-generating) technology, now the mainstay of the country’s solar sector.
The draft of India's ambitious National Solar Mission plan, aimed at reducing emissions and easing the country's crippling power shortages, was endorsed in principle today by the prime minister's Council on Climate Change, Press Trust of India reports.
India, the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, would reduce its reliance on dirty coal under the plan. India's solar power generating capacity would jump from its current near-zero level to 20 gigawatts by 2020, to 100 gigawatts by 2030 and 200 gigawatts by 2050.
India's crippling power shortage represents one of the largest obstacles to economic growth, leaving some 400 million Indians without electricity amid daily blackouts. According to India's Power Ministry, electricity demand outstripped supply by 13.8 percent during peak hours in 2008-2009.
Under the draft plan, the cost of solar power would be reduced to the same level as fossil fuels. India has abundant supplies of coal but relies on imports for 70 percent of its crude oil and 50 percent of its gas.
The three-phase National Solar Mission "would be the most ambitious solar plan that any country has laid out so far," said Siddharth Pathak, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace India, The New York Times reported in June.
Under the plan, India would spend $18.5 billion to $22.8 billion over a 30-year period, to be financed in part by taxes on government-subsidized gasoline and diesel
According to the draft plan, the objective of Phase I (2009-2012), for example, “will be to achieve rapid scale up to drive down costs, to spur domestic manufacturing and to validate the technological and economic viability of different solar applications.”
India's target is 1 million rooftop solar energy systems and solar lighting for 20 million households by 2020. The plan would involve micro-financing initiatives, including a payback system for surplus solar power fed back into the grid.
The National Solar Mission plan calls for India to invest $23 billion for developing, manufacturing and installing solar technology over the next 30 years.
India has the potential to reduce its emissions by almost 60 million tons a year under the plan and save approximately 1.05 billion liters of diesel, a billion liters of kerosene and 350 million liters of fuel oil each year by 2020.
“India´s putting a very strong argument in front of developed countries that it has huge potential for renewable energy,» said Pathak of Greenpeace, the Times of London reported Monday
Solar mission get principle nod
The solar mission under the national action plan on climate change got acceptance from the PM. A meeting held with climate change council discussed every aspect on making India a global leader in solar energy. The plan will be executed in three phases; the plan is to raise this by taxing the fossil fuels mainly coal. The objective in phase one will be to achieve rapid scale up to drive down costs, to spur domestic manufacturing and to validate the technological and economical viability of different solar applications. This will be done through promotion of commercial scale solar utility plants, mandated deployment of solar roof tops. The plan advocates change in law to enable people to sell extra solar power they generate to utility firms.
In the process, India will reduce it emission of carbon dioxide the world’s main green house gas that is leading to climate change by almost by 60 million tons a year. It will save 1.05 billion liters of diesel, a billion liters of kerosene and 350 million liters of fuel oil per year by 2020.
